Students make history come alive

Published 11:50 pm Monday, April 9, 2007

Most mornings when Ann Marie Massengale wakes up, her mother exclaims “Medusa arrives” or “here comes Medusa.”

Ann Marie didn’t quite understand why her mother said that. The only thing about Medusa that Ann Marie knew was that she was associated with snakes.

So when Ann Marie’s seventh-grade English teacher at Gladden Middle School, Nichole Humphrey, assigned her a project researching a famous person or character, she decided to see who Medusa really was.

Ann Marie wrote a research paper on the Gorgon from Greek Mythology known for having snakes in her hair who turned people to stone who looked at them, and she will portray Medusa in a “living wax museum” tonight at the school beginning at 5:30 as part of a parent night.

Other exhibits in the “museum” may include Julius Caesar, Oprah Winfrey, Will Farrell, Marie Antoinette, Annie Oakley, Bonnie and Clyde, Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks.

Students had to write a biography of their subject and also had to write, memorize and perform a monologue about the person. They were also required to dress in clothing the person would have worn or clothing from that person’s time period.

Participants in tonight’s museum will be the students who had the best projects and who were willing to be in the museum, Humphrey said. Sandi Mitchell’s seventh-grade English class is also doing the project.

“This gives them something to look forward to,” Mitchell said. “They’re not just writing a paper. Most students didn’t pick the same people for projects.”

Humphrey said the museum also gives students practice in public speaking.

Students will be “frozen” in a pose that reflects their person until someone does something to activate them, like pushing a button or touching a hat. Last year, a student was Harry Potter and people had to “swish his wand,” Humphrey said.

Once the student is activated, he or she will give the one-minute monologue, then resume the pose, she said.

“They’re really into it,” Humphrey said of the students. “I didn’t have to pull any tricks to get them to do it.”

Ann Marie will be dressed in an old nightgown embroidered in a gold rope that looks like it could have been worn in ancient Greece. And she will wear snakes — fake ones, of course.

“I didn’t know she was once really pretty,” Ann Marie said. “For the monologue I am going to do the part where she is turned ugly. I am going to try to scream like she might have.”

Brooke Gallman, also a student in Humprhey’s class, will portray Susan Olsen. Olsen is known for playing Cindy Brady in the popular 1970s sitcom “The Brady Bunch.”

Brooke did her research paper on Olsen’s acting career that began when she was 14 months old when she starred in a commercial for fabric softener. Brooke will be dressed as Cindy Brady with a 1970s skirt and with pigtails in curls.

She chose her subject because a friend said she looked like Cindy Brady, and “I wanted to choose someone no one else would pick.”

Marissa Elrod and Austin West, students in Mitchell’s class, will portray Bonnie and Clyde, the famous couple who robbed banks in the early 1930s.

Until she began to research the couple, “I didn’t know they were in love,” Marissa said. “We thought they were just friends.”

Austin said he will wear beige pants, a vest, suspenders and a hat that recalls the early 1930s. Marissa said she will wear a red dress, since red was reportedly Bonnie’s favorite color.

Even though they are portraying a couple, Marissa and Austin will present separate monologues. Each focuses on how the duo met, the crimes they committed and how many times they were arrested. Marissa said her monologue will include how Bonnie maintained that she never shot anyone.